2012 Pirelli Night Dragon Tour | Teaser

After having tested Pirelli’s Night Dragon tires on 17 different Harley-Davidson models in six countries over an epic almost 2000-mile journey on Europe’s best and worst roads, I have something to say about the tires.

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During the 2012 Pirelli Night Dragon Tour, which took me from Venice to Istanbul, I have visited the castles, villas and hotels that used to be the playground of communist dictators, the KGB and royalty. Dracula welcomed the Night Dragon train in Romania before we continued our journey through a countryside that varied between dreary and downright stunning.

The people were colorful and the colossus factory complexes ugly and repressive. George Orwell’s 1984 happened here in real life, and in Bucharest the Carol Parc Hotel greeted us with a chilling beauty. The NKVD/KGB used this hotel as their headquarters back in the Cold War days and I hung my boots to dry up in the chandelier that used to hold more bugs than a small African country. Venice, Slovenia, Transylvania and Istanbul were the jewels of the tour but I have seen so much more than just those locations.

I have tested the tires on 17 different Harley-Davidson motorcycles ranging from the Sportster 72, Softail Slim, V-rod, Fat Bob to the Road King and Ultra Glide Classic. The test is the most extensive I have ever done and it has been done in almost any condition you can imagine ranging from sun drenched perfect roads in Slovenia and Hungary to rain soaked nightmare roads in Romania and Bulgaria.

The Night Dragon tires have performed nearly perfectly in all scenarios despite having to cope with dangerously slippery roads over a vast amount of miles.

As I said in the beginning I have something to say about these tyres and that I will do in a comprehensive story also involving the bikes, the people, the landscapes, the castles and the roads.

Whether you’re interested in the tyres or not, you have something to look forward to regardless. Stay clicked to UltimateMotorCycling.com for the full story.

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